As the retail industry continues to become more competitive, customer satisfaction is of paramount importance in establishing and maintaining customers. Customer satisfaction is generally based on a customer's “total shopping experience” at a retail store, which depends on a variety of factors such as a customer's perception of price, product availability, customer service, friendliness of employees, cleanliness of the store, and the presentation of products within the store. The presentation of products includes factors such as whether the products are displayed in a pleasing fashion, whether the products are easy to locate, whether the products are well stocked, and whether the products are within easy reach.
Consequently, retailers expend great effort designing product displays that are visually pleasing and enable a customer to locate and select desired products for purchase. Such effort generally includes the development of what is commonly referred to as a “planogram.” A planogram is a layout, or “blueprint”, that assigns a specific display location on a specific display fixture within a retail store to each product to be displayed. For example, a planogram may assign each product to a specific location on specific shelf or to a specific hook of a specific peg grouping of a particular display fixture within the retail store. Planograms typically provide other information associated with the products to be displayed, such as, for example, the quantities of each product and corresponding pricing information (e.g. labels).
Typically, centrally located employees, such as at a corporate headquarters, for example, develop planograms for particular sets of products for particular time frames. Because individual retail stores often have different shelving and display configurations, unique planograms are typically developed for each retail store. Planograms generally have an effective date, subsequent to which the planogram is to be implemented as expeditiously as possible by retail store personnel, and are “active” for their particular time frame beginning with the effective date. The active time frame may vary between planograms. For example, one planogram may have an active time frame of one week (e.g. a sale period) while another planogram may have an active time frame of one year.
Once developed, planograms are typically printed on paper (“published”) and delivered to individual retail stores two to three weeks prior to their effective date. Delivery of the planograms to each retail store can often take two to three days. While delivering published planograms to stores for subsequent implementation is generally effective, revisions are often made to planograms subsequent to their publication date but prior to their effective date. Due to the lag created by the delivery process, it is sometimes difficult, if not impossible, for retail stores to implement the revised planogram on the associated effective date, as is preferred.
As a result, the retail store may choose to temporarily implement the original planogram and then reconfigure or rework that implementation after receipt of the revised planogram. Implementation of the revised planogram is delayed, and added labor costs are incurred resulting from implementing multiple planograms. In addition to the above-described delays and expenses, each retail store also incurs expenses related to the cumbersome tasks of sorting, copying, filing, and maintaining records of the published planograms.